WASHINGTON – In June 2017, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt and his entourage took a trip to Italy, which cost taxpayers $120,000. This is just the latest example of his profligate spending that has triggered investigations by the EPA inspector general and a House oversight committee.

“Mamma mia, that’s a lot of pasta,” said EWG President Ken Cook.

The EPA spent more than $30,000 on travel arrangements for Pruitt’s security detail during his trip to Italy, which included stops at the Vatican and a meeting of government energy ministers from other countries, according to a Washington Post report on documents obtained through an Environmental Integrity Project Freedom of Information Act request. The Post said this new information, added to previously disclosed costs, brings the total expense for the eight-day jaunt to Italy to $120,000, courtesy of taxpayers.

A big chunk of the expenses came from Pruitt’s use of a military plane to fly from Cincinnati to New York to then catch his first-class, $7,000 flight to Rome.

“Give Pruitt credit where credit is due. It would be hard for even the richest among us to drop $120,000 on a weeklong trip to Italy,” said Cook. “Unfortunately, it wasn’t on his platinum credit card, but taxpayer dollars. Is President Trump even embarrassed by the almost-daily revelations about his cabinet’s exorbitant spending?”